Chapter 8: The Baby Allosaurus
(Freeze the film. Cue the databases.) * Spike Taylor: (voiceover) Allosaurus teeth were serrated front and back, perfectly evolved for tearing through flesh. However, recent research has indicated that the Allosaurus's bite was surprisingly weak. Calculations suggested its bite was less powerful than a lion's despite being 7 times more massive. So, just how did this Jurassic monster hunt and kill? The answer is with an element of surprise. (The scene fades to the area where they found the dead Edmontoguanodon and Erlidominus.) * Max Taylor: Wish you were here, Zoe. We need you. Now more than ever. (He touches a sheet of paper on the ground.) * Rex Owen: What's that? * Max Taylor: Rex... This is why this hybrid was in the clearing the day it was attacked. Come on. (Cut to the jungle.) * Max Taylor: (reads the sheet of paper) "Of the many fearsome dinosaurs that roam The Jurassic Period, none is more deadly than the Saurophaganax. Capable of living up to 30 years, instant death awaits any who meet this agile predator's jaws. Wind dinosaurs flee before it." Rex, this is it. The monster that is threatening the park is a Saurophaganax. That's why I can hear it bellow. It's a giant. * Rex Owen: But if it kills by using his teeth, why is it using his head as a weapon? * Max Taylor: Because its bite wasn't as strong as a lion's. Not nearly as strong as T-Rex. The Allosaurus skull can withstand 55,000 Newtons of tolerance. Big Al - he must have used his axe on other animals. He also used his tail to hit them, but that will cause weak damage, especially to a big dinosaur. And the claws were used to pin them down. I bet you he was using it to attack the animal in case it came along. * Rex Owen: And his injuries? I'm pretty sure he didn't get them by hitting something, Max. * Max Taylor: The tree trunk. He tripped over one when he was chasing a herd of Dryosaurus. the sheet again "Small herbivores flee before it." It all fits! * Rex Owen: But how's a Saurophaganax been getting around? A dirty, great dinosaur. Someone would have seen it. * Max Taylor: Zoe's answered that too. read the last word on the paper. * Rex Owen: "Plains"? It's using the landscape! * Max Taylor: Remember what the documentary said about Big Al 145 million years ago? He died in a riverbed? What if he never left? * Rex Owen: He was a mature adolescent. (Freeze the film again. Cue the databases.) * Spike Taylor: (voiceover) Despite the apparent weakness of its bite, Allosaurus did, in fact, have a deadly killing method. Its skull could withstand a force more than 15 times as great as its bite. This meant that Allosaurus used its head like an axe, its strong neck muscles driving its top jaw into its prey. With every impact, the serrated teeth would tear through its prey's flesh, the victim dying through a combination of shock and blood loss. It isn't pretty, it isn't clinical, but it's ruthlessly efficient. Category:Scenes Category:Raven: The Lost World Category:Mystery Scenes